Picture of the Week

Hurricane Irene is really messing things up.

Quotes

"Mike wasn't a guy that was in anybody's business, he wasn't in the locker room trying to [impose advice], but he was always there if somebody wanted to seek him out. He was such a source of wisdom for so many people, including me," said Orioles manager Buck Showalter about recently deceased Mike Flanagan.

"I'm excited to come out on the field every day. I'm excited to compete. ... My focus isn't on trying to continue the streak. My focus is on winning." -Dan Uggla on his hitting streak.

"Cam is an awesome dude. He's my brother, but we were separated at birth." -Mat Latos on Cameron Maybin.

I always struggle to come up with a good story line or metaphor for the third basemen. Last year I wrote about how I finally succumbed to the reality that Jose Bautista was actually a good player; and, of course, he got hurt. For two years I fought the Bautista bandwagon. But he finally broke me down. Like a player who is hitting on a pretty girl at a bar; his charm knocked down all my walls. And then, with one quick motion, he ripped my heart out, and as I stood there, looking at my heart leisurely beating on the bar, I knew it would happen like this. It couldn’t have ended any other way.

Thankfully, Jose is no longer a third baseman. So, I just wasted a paragraph, and three minutes of your precious time.

This is the first year that Miguel Cabrera will enter the season with third base eligibility since the 2009 season (depending on your eligibility rules). He wasn’t even on this list last year, as I refuse to rank players at a position who have yet to gain that eligibility. Gosh, I’m saying eligibility a lot. Cabrera is easily the best third baseman, and quite possibly the best player in Major League Baseball, depending on who you talk to. I’ve said for years, Miguel Cabrera is the key to a fantasy championship. Go ahead, try and argue against it.

I wrote extensively about how I dislike Chase Headley this year, only to end up with him in a 12-team keeper league this past weekend ($17 in an auction draft; got caught trying to raise the price on him. Truly thought he would go for much more). You can read about my reasoning by following the link on his name.

Like I said, I find it hard to come up with metaphors for these guys. So here are the rankings.

I recently got into a discussion about Chase Headley on twitter with one of our followers who happens to be a San Diego fan. His stance on Headley, as well as many other Padres fans, is that the Padres need to extend him right now. That he’s too valuable a commodity to lose. And I tend to agree, he is a valuable commodity, but he’s not going to get his extension (at least not now), and here’s why:

Chase swung a big stick last year.

The Padres have always and will always be an organization that counts their money carefully. That’s not to say they won’t spend at times, but they’re not in the business of paying top dollar to a player who is at peak value. Headley is coming off a year in which he set career highs in home runs (31), RBI (115), runs (95), hits (173), walks (86), steals (tied previous high of 17), and total bases (301). He didn’t just set career highs…he obliterated his previous marks. Right now, he’s the kind of player who is going to command a large sum of money, and the Padres, the penny pinchers that they are, don’t want to give up a king’s ransom and possibly get burned by a player whose numbers prior to last season were comparable to Mark Teahen’s.

Miguel could be on the field a lot this year due to Detroit's terrible infield defense. Finding a snack wherever he can will be crucial.

Benjamin Franklin once observed that the only guarantees in life are death and taxes. For reasons unknown, Franklin forgot to mention Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera is one of the most consistent sluggers in the game today and Franklin would surely take him #1 overall in his fantasy draft. [Editor’s Note: What would Ben Franklin name his team? The Franklin Hot Stoves? Been-Jammin’ Deborah Read? If you have any better ideas use the comments section].

At the start of spring training last season, Hanley Ramirez and former double-play partner Dan Uggla made a wager to see who would have the worst numbers come the All-Star break. It was determined that the loser would buy the winner a “surf and turf” dinner at Black Angus. Neither did at all well in the first half, but with the muscular Uggla hitting well below his weight on July 10, victory was his. He could almost taste the filet mignon and grilled prawns (additionally he would have a works baked potato, steamed broccoli, a Caesar salad with extra croutons, and maybe a nice Pinot Noir; Uggla envisions his meals to the finest detail). Ramirez saw the writing on the wall, and through a club-appointed interpreter, offered him double-or-nothing to extend the bet to the end of the season. Uggla looked at his own 43/15/34/.185 line and accepted the new terms, figuring his season was irretrievably in the toilet. By the end of September, however, Uggla was the hottest hitter in the NL, while Hanley hadn’t played in two months. Uggla felt so bad for Hanley that he upped the ante and treated him to dim sum at P.F. Chang’s.

If the first basemen of 2012 are to be likened to current stars such as Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, then the third basemen of 2012 might as well be Richard Grieco (Who?! Google him). Third base has guys who look sexy in jockstraps, have well known names, and have been ultra-productive in the past. But outside of Jose Bautista, none of the names on this list put up top-25 numbers in 2011. But there’s an underlying sense of optimism down at the hot corner. Veterans Ryan Zimmerman, David Wright, and Alex Rodriguez appear to be healthy and poised for rebound seasons. Kings of consistency, Michael Young and Aramis Ramirez, don’t appear to be fading any time soon. And youngster Brett Lawrie is threatening to be drafted in the fourth round of your draft (though he’s probably not worthy of a pick that high, yet).

I like to think of fantasy baseball as a microcosm of the stock market. It’s a small economy that fits into your computer. You check the stat ticker on the bottom of the television screen, much like traders check the DOW. You buy low. You sell high.

Staying with this metaphor, would you ever put a large sum of your money in a relatively unknown stock that yes, has had some immediate success, but has only been around for a few weeks? Let’s call this product The Lawriemower. It’s from Canada. Customer reviews say it works great for the first, oh, hour or so, but then it slowly loses steam, stops cutting grass, and finally one of the blades breaks and it becomes unusable. Would you put all your faith in this product? No? You wouldn’t?

Then why are all of you so freaking high on Brett Lawrie? Let’s talk this out. I’m sorry for saying freaking. I didn’t mean to scare you.